Monday, March 21, 2011

Vive La France and Vive Patience!
facebook post by Dave Warren on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 12:04pm


Thank god the US did not go into Libya unilaterally. Instead- and wisely so- waiting for a UN mandated vote sanctioning the move. This mandate’s crucial element includes the Arab League. I don’t think the IMPORTANCE of this can be stresses strongly enough; not only for actions against Qaddafi, but as a global policy compass for the rest of the 21’st century. NOW is the time to fortify the UN by an exponential factor far from its current milque toast, largely symbolic global role. If Obama’s "waiting and waffling" is seen as low profiling hesitancy, then so be it. That’s what it is- and wisely so. To wait for the UN and-the irony of ironies- the French (remember how “wimpy” they were smeared when Bush violated the law and rogued into Iraq?) to actually and symbolically be the first ones to violate Libyan air space was a very powerful and pragmatic choice. Yea for the French. Vive la France!!

No, in this case, it was a prudent stroke of multilateral wisdom to wait until all “international legal ducks” were in a row-even though lives have been lost during this crucial waiting period. The form and legal structure determining the rules of engagement going forward are far more important today than the justifying content leading to hostilities. Unilateral action should legally give way to multilateral mandates. Our entrance into Afghanistan after 9/11 took 6 weeks and that clearly had immediate national security issues justifying the action at the time. Even then, in the best of all possible worlds, a coalition of nations, all of whom have concerns about terror in their own capitols, should have moved as a consolidated unit. The reality is that whether or not we go in to Muslim countries to defend Muslims from Muslims, which, count them, has happened 6 times over the last 20 years: Kuwait, Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, we should ALWAYS, ALWAYS move as a world community and it should simply be outlawed to move unilaterally, EVER, PERIOD.
The" right side of history" is a slippery piece of propaganda based on biased historical analysis when used to defend right minded arguments in the here and now. Currently the term is used as almost an action verb to suggest future outcomes that are consistent with correct thinking. But, it can safely be said that things like Russian gulags, Cambodian re-education camps, totalitarian communisms, fascist genocides, ethnic concentration camps, slavery- and even the softer institutions like colonialism, can be hindsighted (verbed here) as on the “wrong side of history.” Well, despotry should now be evaluated on that same historical auction block when solutions need to be exacted in theNOW. Intervention should be asserted as mandatory solutions to making the world a safer place as all, all threats of terrorism on a mass scale from here on out will likely come from either military or theocratic dictatorships, as they have in the past. For the necessities of NOW, all totalitarian dictatorships w/ bogus democratic effigy labels like"democratic republic of....." in their country's names, should be forewarned and considered on the “wrong side of history.” This should be reason enough for the world community to intervene. Crucial caveat here: WORLD COMMUNITY and never single interest nations. There are clear reasons why people like Thatcher, Meir Power, Indira Gandhi, Clinton- all clear minded women- acted as hawkettes for the right reasons. ( this is an allusion to a CNN article written by David Gergin on hawkish women)


With the recent moves toward freedom coming from north Africa, the opportunities that have been virally loosed, are spreading in the den of depots countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya with others in the wings. This is the time for the world community, NATO, the UN to seize this historical opportunity and to overhaul their charters so that they have real teeth to arbitrate and stabilize the extremely volatile scenarios that lie ahead. The right side of history, which should be used hesitantly here, should be that nation coalitions should jointly move against all despots employing a variety of tactics short of war first, bit if these do not work, invasions, boots on the ground, no fly zones, humanitarian missions, support for rebel insurgents should all be considered as viable options. This will send a very strong message to not only the despots but all elements within these countries that it is ok to break for freedom and even hope for proto democratic reforms and that the WORLD COMMUNITY, not just single interest nations will support them.